NZ Keytruda Funding Knockback Sparks Drug Cost Row
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
The ongoing debate over the costs and benefits of new medicines for cancer and other diseases has been rekindled in New Zealand after the funding agency, Pharmac, said it would need more evidence of the benefits of Merck & Co's Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in advanced melanoma before it could recommend it for funding over other medicines with a better cost-effectiveness profile.